Silver Wings
by Grumble Mcbarkers
Summary: He was the guardian that her parents and ancestors prayed for, he told her, and she asked what they thought of him now that she'd left the sweet soils of Earth. The Beast looked away, his mystical cloudy pelt dimming as he said: "And after all of this I am amazed, That I am cursed far more than I am praised."


_**From tender years you took me for granted**_

Dog, a pearly white. The gentle beauty of his pelt as white as a cloud, his eyes a friendly green.

He watched a woman once a girl from atop the highest cloud in the sky, taking a peak as she worked alongside her lover and friends.

And though she could not see him, he was there and so very real.

_**But still I deign to wander through your lungs**_

With a mighty leap, the hound plummeted from the airy throne of water and wind, falling freely through the million shades of a single blue sheet.

His landing was as soundless as a seed planted into the healthy earth in the summer, the soft touch of a petal against the spring grass, the fallen leaf reunited with its brethren In the autumn ground, or even the tiny snowflake that flew and fell in the clean sheet of snow.

The dog 's eyes gleamed at the delighted woman's expression, his whole body a song lit with a sorrowful smile.

He paced and circled the lady, and it was evident that he could neither be seen nor heard.

He was convinced that he was real, and he was, but it was only through another world that he'd live.

A god as rich with power and fury as he, stooping so low to accompany a human girl, but only acknowledged as another name.

_**While you were sleeping soundly in your bed,**_

_**(Your drapes were silver wings, your shutters flung)**_

He returned one night, swooping through the same mortal's window.

She was younger than when he last visited.

And she'd caught a glimpse of a white ghost passing, its shape resembling that of an old fairy tale. That of a hound cloaked with her curtains and adorned by its misty hood.

It evaporated; gone as quickly as it came. She swore she knew its name, but dismissed the thought, only deeming it male.

Her windows were closed, but as he crashed through them, they did not sound, they did not crack.

They did not break.

_**I drew the poison from the summer's sting,**_

_**And eased the fire out of your fevered skin.**_

In his next encounter, she was farther in her youth; but rather than being in a playful party or indulging in activities, she was distressed and ill on a bed.

The dog was appalled by the sickness taunting her and toying with her health, contributing to his now-rising anger.

Wrath knowing no bounds, he growled and he barked, rage piling up on itself like molten lava. The illness laughed at him for his futile attempts at fending the female from it.

Fed up, the beast unfurling grew, maws parting an a cry.

A howl filled the void of silence, prying it apart by its seams. A thunderous roar so bold yet so fearful wailed in the quiet, demanding that the girl be cured. The ailment wept, its grip on the girl rapidly loosening until she was well once more.

As she awoke, the canine had fled outside the window, brushing against her draped and mildly rustling them.

She was convinced she heard a dog while she slept.

_**I moved in you and stirred your soul to sing;**_

_**And if you'd let me I would move again.**_

The very same woman, younger than before, sat atop her bed, mattress creaking slightly as she rose.

She contemplated her fondest memories, the childish things she'd done:

For one, running across the field.

She remembered that as she sprang across the gorgreous landscape, there was a presence guiding her every stride, every step, every single movement. It reassured her that she'd not fall, but fly. It glided beside her and caused her hair to billow lightly behind her.

The wind that passed stirred a song too brilliant, too flawless for any words.

Its beat closely resembled a happy companion's bark.

As she progressed in life, she learned. And the more she learned, she began losing access to the door in her mind that allowed her the lyrics, the tune and the melody of the hymn.

Never did she realise that it was she who was denying herself permission to sing her own song.

_**I've danced 'tween sunlit strands of lover's hair;**_

Once the dog had reached his destination, he was amazed and broken by the view he'd been given.

The girl whom he'd visited, progressively growing younger as his time passed, had already grown up.

For once, he was not the the cause of her laughter. She sat contentedly beside a man, the expressions shared by the two was unmistakable love.

She'd chosen the path to have a lover, the hound repeated to himself. He was enraged, furious, angered, sorrowed, but he could not find it in himself to blame the woman. She couldn't see him in his current form, let alone see him weep.

So he decided not to waste any more time in this and passed.

The lass was broken from time's halt on her, lost in her lover's eyes. A simple melody, no background or beat, glided by. It flew through the man's hair, and she could never have loved him more.

_**Helped form the final words before your death.**_

The dog now titled Beast, whose beginning was true and beautiful, had his armour cracked. Pitiless black little arms stretching and branching into little fingers and diving past his fur, into his skin.

The woman was on a bed that wasn't her own, strange tubes and wires tangled into her flesh, ruining her endless beauty. She'd aged along with her partner, who stood wearily by the side of her.

She was seeing flickering memories, those of the past, and now of the current. What she never comprehended was the violently deteriorating image of a white hound. She was convinced that it was a delusion of her hopeless fate because as it stood, no one paid it mind. Some even passing right through it.

Though as it approached and rested its chin on her stomach, she realised it was he who'd been giving her time to create her parting words.

So she did, weakly entwining her fingers with her lover's own.

A phrase fell from her lips, generously carried by the beast to her partner.

And she departed.

_**I've pitied you and plied your sails with air;**_

_**Gave blessing when you rose upon my breath.**_

When she ascended from Earth's life, she found herself walking through a thick forest with the exact same canine accompanying her.

He told her she had yet to find true peace, and that he would join her since his duties had been fulfilled.

As she reached the shores that the Beast had lead her to, she was told to cast off and she would find rest at last when she reached the land beyond the fog.

The hound had said that she was to form the sail with every song she had felt while she lived. Her troubles were thickened when she told the dog that as she grew, she steadily decreased her knowledge of the songs that he spoke of.

With a sad frown and a merciful soul, the Beast commanded the girl to climb into the boat.

The lass was incredulous, overwhelmed with emotion when the hound begain to sing. His pearl-pelted splendor rolling with the wind that he gave. The life that stirred in the song drowned out the silence and filled the holes in the woman's memories.

As they sailed through new world's waters, she asked the dog what part he played in her life and how he knew of the songs that she'd been missing.

He explained every memory for the rest of the trip, how he battled her sorrows with the breezes he supplied, calmed her in her doubt with the symphony in the storms he strode on, ceased the foul hands of fear from gripping her, and how far he went to keep her happy and alive.

He was the guardian that her parents and ancestors prayed for, he told her, and she asked what they thought of him now that she'd left the sweet soils of Earth.

The Beast looked away, his mystical cloudy pelt dimming as he said:

"_**And after all of this I am amazed,**_

_**That I am cursed far more than I am praised."**_


End file.
